Crafterhours Guest Post: Cinderella Tutu!

Oh my goodness. You guys are going to luvvvv this one!

I'm so excited that Adrianna from Crafterhours is helping out with the Tutu Drive & guest posting for me today. I absolutely adore the Crafterhours blog. You know when you find a blog & the way the author writes just speaks to you, almost like you're talking to an old friend? That's how Adrianna & Susan are at Crafterhours, they're funny, sweet, creative & even a bit crass. To me, the perfect combination in a friend. (:

After you take a look at this tutorial & crank out about a half a dozen of them (wink, wink) promise me you'll go take a peek at their blog. I bet you'll love it.

Take it away Adrianna!

Hello everyone! Adrianna from Crafterhours here. Thank you Natasha for having me over today! I think you're pretty awesome for hosting this charity event, and am very flattered that you invited me to do a tutorial. I hope all of you reading this will help Natasha reach her goal of 100 tutus for this very worthy cause!

If you need a push in the right direction, there are tons of tutu tutorials out there (that's fun to say), but this is what I came up with. I kind of made it up as I went, so it may seem a little strange. Feel free to do it your own (better) way!

Supplies:
- 4.5 yards of 60 inch wide light blue tulle
- 1 yard of shiny white fabric (I used a polyester satin) You'll have plenty left over.
- 1 yard of synthetic white ribbon
- length of 1 inch elastic, cut to fit around wearer's waist
- fire

Using these supplies, I was able to make a size 4ish tutu, but depending on how long you want your tutu to be, this could easily fit a 2-100 yr old :)

Step 1:
Cut your tulle into 60 x 32 inch rectangles. If you fold your tulle lengthwise into fourths, you'll have an easier time cutting across the entire width. You should end up with 5 rectangles and a little scrap leftover.

Step 2:
Take your rectangles and stack them all on top of each other like a big tulle sandwich.

Step 3:
Carefully fold that entire stack in half lengthwise, so you now have a 60x16 inch rectangle. Pin at the fold so nothing shifts. It is more important that the tulle stay put at the fold than at the raw edge. If the raw edges aren't perfectly equal, that's just fine.

Step 4:
Using a very low heat setting, press the fold to secure it, but leave the pins in. Make sure the iron doesn't melt your tulle!

Step 5:
Sew a seam 1.5 inches away from the fold, all the way across the 60 inches. You will be sewing through 10 layers of tulle.

Step 6:
Thread the elastic through the tube you just sewed. Sew the ends of the elastic together and arrange the tulle over the elastic so it is all covered and the gathers are evenly distributed. Now you should have this:

See how the uneven hem just makes it more frothy and tutu-ish?

Step 7:
Fold your white fabric and cut 2 rectangles that measure 15 x 13 inches. You'll end up with 4 rectangles.

Step 8:
Lay all the rectangles on top of each other so the 13 inch sides make the top and bottom, and cut them all so the two bottom corners are rounded.

Step 9:
Sew two of the rectangles right sides together: First, sew a seam across the flat top. Stop halfway across and leave a 2 inch hole so you can flip it right-side-out later. Then, using your longest stitch length, sew 4.5 inches down both sides of the rectangle. Continue sewing around the rounded corners at a normal stitch length.

Step 10:
Pull on the bobbin thread to gather the top 4.5 inches of each rectangle where you used a longer stitch length. Once these are gathered as tight as they'll go, sew over them with a regular stitch to secure. This picture might help:

Step 11:
Flip the rectangles right-side-out, push out all the corners and curves, and press. Repeat steps 9 & 10 on your other two rectangles.

Step 12:
Find the point on your tutu where the tulle is open and sew one top corner of each white rectangle to the elastic at that point. This will attach the white parts, but also ensure that your elastic doesn't flip around. Seriously, what are those white parts called on Cinderella's dress? I'm calling them "white parts".

Step 13:
Bring the white parts around to the front of the tutu, and sew them down, leaving a gap in between.

Now your tutu will look like this. See how the white parts stick up at the top? Let's take care of that, shall we?

Step 14:
Flip the white parts up and find the center point.

Sew that point down, right sides together, to the elastic of your tutu.

When you flip it back down, it'll look like this. Now we have that nice poofyness and drape like the white parts on Cinderella's dress!

Step 15:
Use your ribbon to make a bow and sew it to the front of the tutu. You could do this by actually making a bow, or by assembling each bow "part" separately and sewing them all on for a "faux bow". Ha! Faux bow! I've got to copyright that! Ok, sorry, it's been a long tutorial.

The fire I mentioned earlier is to melt the ends of the ribbon so it doesn't fray. Make sure you don't actually put the ribbon into the flame, but hold it near enough that it begins to melt. My Faux Bow© construction looked like this:

Step 16:
Slip that tutu onto the cutest belly around and enjoy!

Thanks again for having me over today, Natasha!

Oh my goodness Adrianna. Seriously? Seriously?! That is the CUTEST THING EVER! I'm dying over here, can you please ship an extra 2 for me & Samster? That wouldn't be a problem right? (;